CHAPTER 5
1133 Words
Aria
The suitcase was open like a wound.
I stared at it for a second too long, hands hovering above it without moving.
Then I forced myself to breathe.
In.
Out.
But even the air in the room felt wrong.
Too clean, too cold, too controlled.
Everything here was too controlled.
I grabbed a dress and folded it quickly, almost aggressively, like if I moved fast enough my chest wouldn’t feel tight anymore.
It didn’t work.
It never worked.
Fabric slipped through my fingers slightly as I shoved it into the suitcase.
Another one.
Then another.
Too slow.
Not fast enough.
My heartbeat was already uneven, like it didn’t belong inside my body anymore.
Outside, the rain was louder than before.
It wasn’t soft anymore.
It was hitting the glass like it was angry.
Like it knew something I didn’t.
I exhaled sharply and zipped part of the suitcase halfway.
The sound was too loud, everything was too loud.
Even the silence.
Even breathing.
Then the door opened.
I didn’t even look up immediately, I already knew.
Lucien.
Of course it was him.
He always entered like he had never been stopped in his life. The air changed the moment he stepped inside. It always did that.
I hated that I noticed.
“Packing,” he said.
Not a question.
Just observation like I was something he was watching lose value.
I forced my hands to keep moving.
“I’m leaving,” I said.
My voice sounded strange.
Oddly firm like I could break a porcelain on his head the next minute.
Lucien didn’t react that was worse.
I could feel him watching the suitcase.
Watching me like I was supposed to hesitate or break.
Ask him to stop me.
But I didn't, I just kept folding faster now.
My fingers fumbled slightly.
I hated that too.
“You’re still recovering,” he said.
That sentence again it’s always that sentence.
Like I was something fragile he owned the rights to repair.
“I’m fine,” I snapped.
Too quickly even I felt it.
A crack in my voice.
Lucien stepped closer, not enough to touch but enough that the air tightened around me.
I hated that too.
“You always do this,” he said quietly.
My hands stopped, that was new.
I turned slightly.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
His eyes didn’t move, it didn't blink.
“You decide something,” he said. “Then act like nothing else matters.”
A laugh almost came out of me but it died halfway because I didn’t even remember the kind of woman he was talking about.
Maybe I was her.
Maybe I wasn’t.
“I don’t remember deciding anything in this life,” I said.
My voice broke at the end.
I hated that more than anything.
A silence snapped tight between us.
Outside, loud thunder rolled suddenly.
Too close that the windows trembled slightly with it.
I flinched before I could stop myself.
Lucien noticed.
Of course he did.
His gaze dropped to my hands for a fraction of a second then back to my face. “You’re shaking,” he said.
“I’m not.”
But I was.
I hated that I was.
My fingers gripped the edge of the suitcase like it could hold me together.
The room suddenly felt smaller like it was closing in.
Like the walls had started listening.
A sudden flash hit me, not gentle or soft but violent—glass cracking, rain, headlights.
My breath stopped.
My body went cold instantly.
I staggered slightly backward without thinking.
Lucien moved forward instinctively.
“Aria—”
“Don’t,” I snapped loudly
The flash was still there behind my eyes.
I blinked hard and it didn't go away immediately.
I pressed my hand against my temple.
“What is wrong with me…” I whispered.
Lucien didn’t answer.
That silence again.
That unbearable control.
The kind that made me feel like I was the only one falling apart in the room.
Then—
An urgent knock sounded at the door.
The door opened before permission was even given.
A doctor.
Breathing slightly too fast.
Hair damp from the rain she looked like she had run.
My stomach dropped instantly something was wrong.
I felt it before she even spoke.
“Mr. Vaughn,” she said.
Her voice shook slightly.
“I need to speak with you.”
Lucien didn’t turn fully.
“Say it.”
The doctor swallowed, her eyes flicked to me then back to him.
“I rechecked her scans from the accident,” she said quickly. “There was something missed.”
My fingers tightened on the suitcase.
I didn’t like that sentence.
I didn’t like it at all.
Lucien finally turned slightly.
“Continue.”
The doctor hesitated.
Just for a second.
That second felt too long.
“She’s pregnant.”
The world didn’t just stop.
It collapsed.
My grip on the suitcase slipped completely.
Fabric spilled slightly out.
I didn’t move.
I couldn’t.
The word echoed in my skull like it didn’t belong there.
Pregnant.
Pregnant.
Pregnant.
My breath came out wrong.
“No,” I said immediately.
Too fast.
Too instinctively.
“No— that’s not—”
My voice cracked.
I hated that too.
Lucien didn’t move.
Didn’t blink or react the way I expected.
Not shock or disbelief.
Nothing just stillness and that stillness made my chest tighten painfully.
“Say that again,” I whispered.
The doctor looked between us.
Uncertain.
Uncomfortable now.
“I confirmed it twice,” she said softly. “You’re about six weeks along.”
Six weeks.
My head spun slightly.
Six weeks of what?
Of this life?
Of him?
Of a marriage I couldn’t even remember agreeing to?
I looked at Lucien again waiting.
For something, anything but his face was unreadable.
Too unreadable and suddenly—
That scared me more than the word itself.
The rain outside hit the glass harder like the world was reacting because I wasn’t.
My hand slowly moved to my stomach without permission.
Like it wasn’t mine.
Like it didn’t belong to me anymore.
“No,” I whispered again, weaker this time.
But this time it wasn’t denial.
Lucien finally spoke.
Dangerously calm.
“Leave.”
The doctor flinched then left quickly.
The door shut.
Silence exploded again.
Just me and him the suitcase.
The rain and something inside my body I didn’t understand.
I looked at him
and finally my voice came out smaller than I wanted.
“What did you do to me?”
Lucien’s gaze finally shifted.
And for the first time it wasn’t unreadable, it was fixed locked.
Like the answer had already existed long before I asked the question and that was the moment I knew…
- Writer
